Eyebrow threading is a booming industry in Texas. But state bureaucrats are making it impossible to continue practicing this ancient art.

Threading is booming because it’s cheaper, faster and less painful than waxing. Plus, it doesn’t involve any chemicals, dyes, or sharp objects and is healthy for the skin In addition to pleasing consumers, the industry is creating good-paying jobs and exciting opportunities for numerous Texas entrepreneurs.

The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) is now demanding that eyebrow threaders obtain expensive and irrelevant licenses in Western-style cosmetology. Threading is not mentioned anywhere in state law, yet TDLR expects threaders with up to 20 years of experience to immediately stop working and spend approximately $20,000 obtaining up to 1,500 hours of instruction in government-approved beauty schools that do not even teach threading.

Further, threaders must pass government-approved cosmetology exams that do not test for threading. Inspectors have already begun imposing $2,000 fines on threaders who cannot immediately comply. The licensing scheme protects cosmetology companies from honest competition, but does nothing to help consumers.

Texans have a constitutional right to work in the occupation of their choice without unreasonable government interference. That is why on December 8, 2009, the Institute for Justice Texas Chapter filed suit in Travis County District Court on behalf of eight Texas threading entrepreneurs. IJ seeks to have the state’s unreasonable and unwritten eyebrow threading requirements declared unconstitutional and to restore economic liberty for entrepreneurs across the state.